Or rather, I’m shouting about Twist.

Have you seen this yet? I know, I know, who hasn’t, right? Still, I want to do my part to spread the word, so if you haven’t gone to take a look, go now!

Check him out in his cut-off tank top! I don’t see a baby any more when I look at him, I see a little boy, and it makes me a little sad sometimes. He’s already grown up so much…I know he’s still young, but he’s such a “kid” already.

One afternoon when we were home during his Hand, Foot and Mouth contagious phase, I had to put him in his playpen so I could make a bathroom run. His retaliation was to throw EVERYTHING out. He’s tossed toys before, but this was the first time the playpen was literally empty around him. He was so proud of himself that he gave me a huge, toothy grin. (The funny thing is I have a photo somewhere of me around 2 years old making the EXACT same face).

Does this kid look sick to you? 🙂

He loves zooming around with his walker-toy. I’m too lazy to convert the video for the blog, but if you were watching this live, he is FAST! I know, I know, he could/should be walking already. He WAS walking already. Not just while holding on to stuff, but 2 weeks ago he was actually letting go of the walls or whatever and walking to whatever/whoever he wanted to go to. Then he got sick, and he hasn’t wanted to walk since, even though he’s better. I don’t know if he associated the weak/feverish feeling from being sick with walking, but he won’t do it any more. He’ll still be up in a second and cruise around holding onto walls or cabinets, but if you try and walk holding his hand, or stand him up to have him walk from one person to another like he used to, he’ll plop himself right down. If you try a few times in a row to get him to walk he’ll not only resist, but he’ll get really upset and start to cry. I’m not worried- we know he *can* walk, he’s just choosing *not* to. But still, it’s hard for us when we know he was right at the cusp of taking off and running.

He DID accomplish one big milestone while we were home sick, though. He now can eat his meals with a fork and his desserts with a spoon. I need to help him push the fork into his food with enough force to actually spear it, but once the food is stuck on the fork I let go and he brings it right to his mouth without error, and then back to the bowl. The spoon he does great too- although he doesn’t really “scoop” the food so much as he lets the yogurt or applesauce *coat* the spoon then he brings it to his mouth. It gets a little messy, but it’s been 2 weeks and no food has ended up on the floor or walls! That’s good enough for me!

Just wanted to let you know that it was driving me crazy, so I Googled my fingers off and found the creepy diner!

It’s the Farmer’s Diner, in Quechee, Vermont.

Of course, now I feel bad. I really want to explain that it was “probably” only creepy because it was half deserted and in the pitch-black, early night. And had no cell signal. And locked me out.

I also wanted to mention that both Maaike and I were impressed with the menu; it was full of highlighted items, each one was something that was locally produced or grown. We both had the South of the (Canadian) Border Nachos – hoo boy was the chicken spicy! – but had we more time, or had we been hungrier, there were many area foods that we wanted to try. If you’re ever in Quechee, Vermont, I’d recommend to try it out.

But go in the daytime.

Woo hoo… a quickie!

Ok, here’s the deal. I have photos of knitting to show you, I have news for you, and I have a package from my Secret Pal to show off. (Thanks Secret Pal! Photos coming soon!) But I’ve been having very hectic days with Jakob, who is still sick, and we’re still keeping him home from work, and he’s not napping very well during this transition from sickie to well, so my blogging time has been practically nil during the day. Add to that the fact that I’ve had some kind of plans every night this week, and that explains my continued absence.

Those plans continue tonight, and I’m late, so I’m going to run. But check this space tomorrow for a post, I promise!

I don’t know how many of you noticed, but the blog seemed to have disappeared for a few days. (This would only have been apparent for those of you who come here by typing in http://www.jeloca.com/. The direct blogspot link wasn’t affected).

Long story short is that I decided to repurchase some web space and host my own files, instead of relying on free online storage solutions that are often more of a headache. In the last few weeks I’ve tested my own free pattern links and found that they were down about a quarter of the time. I don’t know if any of you had tried them and found a broken link, but if you did, I’m really sorry. The link is still the old one, but over the next few days I will be updating it it.

So what was the problem? I pay to have you forwarded here against your knowledge. Sounds sneaky, huh? All that means is that when you type in http://www.jeloca.com/ (short and sweet), my internet people zip you over to http://www.jeloca.blogspot.com/ (longer and easier to mess up). You don’t realize it because the address bar stays the same. (Bloglines people aren’t affected because the rss feed goes directly to the blogspot address). In any case, in a genius move on my part, I forgot that once my web space went “live” and was linked to my jeloca.com domain name, the new webspace would force itself over the forwarding. Which means that if you came to http://www.jeloca.com/ in the last few days you would have seen a message from my internet provider saying that the website wasn’t up yet.

A lot of blather to say that I’d goofed, but I’ve now fixed it, and I’m quite happy with the results. It’s clean, open and easy to read. Like the new look?

In the upcoming days, in addition to the Habs Cloth patterns moving to my own space with (reliable) links, I will also be adding more free patterns. The Vegas Scarf (Knitting Game) pattern will be updated with a new look, and I’ll also be adding the Mug Cozy pattern I promised you.

In the meantime, I have been knitting for Veronik but can’t show it here.

I’ve also been taking care of a toddler with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. It sounds worse than it is- anything with “disease” in the name can’t help but sound horrible. It really isn’t much more than a lingering, misery-inducing fever and achiness with barely-noticable blisters on the hands, feet and in the mouth. The doctor who diagnosed Jakob was calling it the “July Disease” because it is going around like crazy.

The worst parts are that Jakob doesn’t want to eat ANYTHING because it hurts in his mouth, and his sleep is really disrupted because he keeps waking up. I’m also trying to limit what he touches because this bug is really contagious. It’s not really harmful to adults (so I hear) but it travels fast to other little kids. Aparently he was contagious for a week before the symptoms even came out (yay) and even once he’s better (about 7-10 days) the virus can live on countertops and toys and clothing/sheets for up to 2 weeks, and in his stools for up to 3 months. Which means a lot of disinfecting and hand washing. Fun times all around.

I do have some knitting to show you, but I was too lazy busy to download them from my camera so they’ll have to wait. In the meantime, I won a contest! The lovely and talented Tara had a contest to celebrate her birthday, and I won. I think this is the first blog-contest I’ve won since I started mine.

Her kids are sick today, so as a small thank-you for the contest win, I’m asking if you could go over and send her some feel-better love in the comments.

I just noticed I was tagged for a meme by Robyn, so here are my answers.

The Rules – Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago: 1998.

In the summer of 1998 I had, what I like to call, the Armageddon incident. I credit (or blame, depending on the day, lol) the movie Armageddon for me meeting Yannick. Three guy friends and I had gone to get tickets for the early show at the now-gone movie theater in the Zellers complex. The early show was sold out because the movie had *just* opened, and we were only able to get tickets for the late show that started over 2 hours later. Rather than leave, we decided to go to the bar in the same complex and hang out to kill time. As it was still rather early, the only patrons at the bar were the “regulars”, a bunch of older guys who wouldn’t “fit in” at other bars. We put our loonies down on the pool table to get in on the games, and they put theirs down, and after a few games we were all taking turns playing each other. I was much younger (and thinner) then, and I remember I was wearing a cute *little* tank top and shorts, and I was joking around with the regulars very easily, and the owner of the bar came up and offered me a job working there. I reminded him I’d applied when I was 18 and he wasn’t interested then, and said I’d have to think about it because I already had a full-time job working at a retail store.

I did end up taking the job, and the owner taught me how to bartend, and I ended up working there until the following February. I also kept my retail job, and for 2 months I worked 5 days a week 10am-5pm at the store, and 3 nights a week 10pm-3am at the bar. It was loooooong, but I ended up giving up the retail job because the bar was more fun and made me more money.

There was only one guy bartender there, and a bunch of his friends would come and hang out every night. Yannick was one of his friends. We met over the summer…we started hanging out in November…and we started dating on December 1st 1998. The rest, as they say, is history. 🙂

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
-buy milk for Jakob before I go home
-go to a local pub for a SnB with the West Island knitters
-get as much knitting done as possible on my Mary Maxim submission
-make sure I get my mom’s French Toast Cinnamon Casserole (or something) recipe so I can check what ingredients I’m missing to have everything on hand for this weekend when we do a Father’s Day brunch with Yannick’s family
-catch up on my Bloglines and maybe add an old project or two to my Ravelry notebook

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Regular flavored chips, Cheesies, almost anything that is fried or cheesy, fresh fruit, and lately anything that is sour.

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:
Clear my debts and any debts in my immediate family, give my dad enough to retire (my mom is retiring this year already), take a long trip with my family, buy the first 50 blog readers to respond 2 skeins of yarn of their choice, donate to charity, put money aside for my children’s education and savings accounts then sit back, relax, knit and finally have time to work on my designs.

5. Places I have lived:
Montreal, Quebec.

I tag:Tara, Kadi, Dianne, Maaike, JayJay (if you’re not too busy), and the blogless Kate to post her answers in the comments.

A while ago, Interweave Knits sponsored a poetry contest through their blog, Knitting Daily. Yannick and I had each entered a poem (but I’d written both…shhh!)

Seeing as how we didn’t win, or even place, I figured I’d share the poems with you now. The rules were simple- the poem could only use the words found in the Magnetic Poetry Set that Interweave sells.

The grand prize was to have your poem knit into a pair of mittens, and the other prizes were copies of Interweave’s knitting books and stuff like that. Anyone else but me think the other prizes were all much better than the grand prize??

Anyways, here are my two poems.
and
If you’d like to see the poems that did win (and deservedly so!), click here.

According to What to Expect the First Year:
By twelve months, your baby

…should be able to:
-walk holding on to furniture (cruise) CHECK

-use a few gestures to get needs met KINDA

…will probably be able to:

-play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye CHECK

-drink from a cup independently CHECK

-pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefinger CHECK

-stand alone momentarily KINDA

-say “dada” or “mama” discriminately WELL…he says “mama” now, but not always to me.

-say one word other than “mama” or “dada” CHECK he says “up”, “ban” (fan), “baby”. But I don’t consider any his first real world yet, because I don’t know if he knows what they mean. (Except maybe “up”. He always says it when he’s in his crib or tied into his bucket or chair and wants to get out).

…may possibly be able to:

-“play ball” SOMEWHAT

-stand alone well NO

-use immature jargoning ALL THE TIME

-walk well NO

…may even be able to:

-say three words or more other than “mama” or “dada” SEE ABOVE

-respond to a one-step command without gestures CHECK

One year.

It took about 20 minutes to go from this

to this.

And a few more to get to this.

6 months to get to this.

and another 6 to get to this.

Everything I need to say I’ve said to him already…he’s the best kid I’ve ever known. He’s sweet, he’s kind, he’s playful, he’s funny, he’s smart…and we are so lucky that he’s ours.

Happy Birthday Jakob.

p.s. Yes this is back-dated…we’ve had a very busy weekend.